This invention relates to thermal ink jet printing and, more particularly, to thermal ink jet printing of images onto thermal adhesive binding tape.
A thermal ink jet printer has at least one printhead in which thermal energy pulses are used to produce vapor bubbles in ink-filled channels and so cause droplets of ink to be expelled from the channel orifices towards a recording medium. The thermal energy pulses are usually produced by resistors, each located in a respective one of the channels, which are individually addressable by current pulses to heat and vaporize ink in the channels. As a vapor bubble grows in any one of the channels, ink bulges from the channel orifice until the current pulse has ceased and the bubble begins to collapse. At that stage, the ink within the channel retracts and separates from the bulging ink which forms a droplet moving in a direction away from the channel and towards the recording medium. The channel is then re-filled by capillary action, which in turn draws ink from a supply container. Some arrangement is usually provided to clean the channel orifices periodically while the printhead is in use and to close-off the orifices when the printhead is idle to prevent the ink in the printhead from drying out.
One form of thermal ink jet printer which is incorporated herein by reference to the extent necessary to practice the present invention is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,963 which provides both a paper supply tray and a paper collection tray in the front of the printer for ease of handling and reduced footprint. The paper collection tray is provided with a pair of opposed output rails which support a sheet during printing to permit ink printed onto a sheet or paper previously to dry. A paper handling mechanism is provided which picks off a sheet of paper from a stack and brings it around paper drive rollers onto a platen where the printing operation, employing a printhead cartridge occurs. One problem with this type of paper supply mechanism is the absence of a means to feed thermal binding tape strips for printing thereon by the printer. This problem is particularly acute since thermal adhesive binding tape is an industry approved method of producing small quantities of bound books. Some of the approved systems use precut 11" tape strips for book binding purposes that are about 1" to 3" in width.